Midwest glacial lakes provide habitat for incredible biodiversity, offer recreational opportunities, and stimulate the economies of the communities surrounding them. However, these lakes face visible threats from land use change, aquatic invasive species, and shoreline development. Threats to fish habitat in  glacial lakes operate at multiple spatial and temporal scales and involve complex interactions between  social and ecological processes.  

Lake associations are important agents of, and advocates for, habitat conservation in glacial lakes. As lake  stewards, we know that warming water temperatures, fluctuating water levels, new forms of recreation,  and unexpected events like COVID-19 are changing the ways lakes are used. These changes are occurring across the Midwest; some happen slowly and others seem to happen overnight.  

This interactive workshop helps lake organization members use systems thinking to plan for change and  manage their lakes to increase resilience of the social, ecological, and economic aspects of their lake  system. To achieve this, we will provide tools to conserve fish habitat, increase recreational fishing opportunities, and discuss the benefits of systems management. Participants will leave with a practical  understanding of conservation planning, and a network of peers to increase the resilience and adaptive  capacity of their lakes and organizations.  

This workshop will be led by Chelsey Nieman and Dane Whittaker. Chelsey is a fisheries ecologist at the  Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies and an expert on the intersection of science and stakeholder engagement in recreational fisheries, such as the walleye fisheries of Lake Erie. Dane is a doctoral student at Arizona State University studying water governance in the Midwest, and has worked extensively with lake associations in Vilas and Oneida counties in Wisconsin.

You can register for your state’s workshop here.